History and Rationale

The California Department of Public Health has developed this toolkit to assist hospitals and health care providers meet the national and state public health breastfeeding goals. This document is to be used in conjunction with Providing Breastfeeding Support; Model Hospital Policy Recommendations 2005 and lists evidence-based best practices and resources to help in its implementation.

The tool kit includes resources and web links to materials that have been developed by hospitals and other agencies, organizations and professionals. Some of the tool kit materials are available in Word or Excel format. These resources are shared by their individual developers, and may be edited and modified. Please credit the original author or organization when that name is provided.

Toolkit Layout

I. SUMMARY OF MODEL HOSPITAL POLICY RECOMMENDATIONS: This initial page has a summary of the 10 model hospital policies, with links to the pages that provide the expanded hospital policies.

II. Expanded Hospital PoliciesPlease note that a “printer friendly” link is in the left (gray) column of each page

Intervention/Management & Rationale: The two left columns of the toolkit are from the original “Providing Breastfeeding Support: Model Hospital Policy Recommendations”, but whenever possible include links to the items or organizations mentioned.

Resources*: The right column provides resources that can be useful in fully understanding and implementing that particular policy.

*External Resources are not a part of the California Department of Public Health (CDPH), Maternal, Child and Adolescent Health Program/Office of Family Planning Program (MCAH/OFP) Website. We are not responsible for the content of sites that are external to the CDPH. Linking to a Web site does not constitute an endorsement by CDPH of the sponsors of the site or the information presented on the site.

References: At the end of each expanded policy is a listing of the references that were listed in the original Model Hospital Policy Recommendations. When possible, links to the abstracts or actual documents have been included.

Additional References: In order to keep the Toolkit updated, additional references have been added at the end of the reference section, with links if they are available.

Feeback From User

1. Save the above toolkit evaluation to your computer. 2. Open the document in Microsoft Word and fill in your responses. 3. Once finished, save the document. 4. Send an E-mail to the Breastfeeding Program and attach your completed questionnaire-OR- Click HERE to open your default E-mail application and attach your completed questionnaire.

Acknowledgement

A special thanks is given to all those who freely shared their materials. The lactation community has fully supported this endeavor and has demonstrated its dedication to the improvement of services for breastfeeding mothers, babies and families.

By improving hospital services, it is hoped that health care agencies and communities will be encouraged to expand their reach and provide a seamless network for prenatal, hospital and postpartum breastfeeding education and services.